A number of years ago ISDN revolutionized the voiceover business, by making it possible to get studio quality audio from one city to another, even from one part of the world to another over digital phone lines. All that was needed were about $5000.00 work of gadgetry on both ends, and the special ISDN digital phone service ($400 to install and $75 a month for the service) installed at each location.
Now, a company called Source Elements is revolutionizing the voiceover business again with a remarkable piece of software called Source-Connect. Initially Source-Connect was only available as a plug-in to ProTools. But now, they’ve released a version that works as a VST plug-in with a much wider range of software. (A list of the officially supported host programs can be found here.)
I’m using ProTools 7.1 M-powered and this morning, after unsuccessfully fussing with Source-Connect for a few days, my friend and fellow voiceover guy Dan Nachtrab helped me over the last couple of hurdles. The magic bullet was that once we had connected with one another, I had to put my system into “record” mode so that I could hear him. Dan could hear me right away, but that’s because he already knew about this step.
Dan and I chatted with one another for several minutes, with me still using the free evaluation version of the program, and it sounded as good as or better than an ISDN session. I mean, if you’re not familiar with how that sounds, it sounded like we were in the same room. Yes, believe it. Highly recommended.